This disclosure relates generally- to video processing and more specifically relates to video processing system architectures. Video processing systems are employed in various demanding applications, including high-definition television, missile guidance systems, and Internet video streaming. Such applications often demand compact cost-effective systems for encoding, transmitting, and decoding high quality compressed video relatively accurately, quickly; and efficiently.
Standards such as H.264 define specific ways of doing video encoding and decoding. H.264 is a digital video codec standard written by the Joint Video Team (JVT) comprising the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)—Telecommunication Standardization Sector (T) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Moving Picture Experts. Group (MPEG). The H.264 standard is also called the ISO/TEC MPEG-4 Part 10 standard or the ITU-T H.264 standard.
An example H.264 video encoder architecture includes various physical modules, such as motion search, mode decision, reconstruction, and loop-filtering modules. Each module must often, access large amounts of video information. Unfortunately, conventional encoder architectures typically exhibit undesirable: design constraints that result in inefficient data transfer operations between encoder modules. These inefficiencies complicate efforts to achieve high-quality video output.